Project Instructions
This collection contains emigration registers for persons departing Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Norddeutscher Bund (Germany) 1856-1877. We will be keying line number, name, age, contract day, serial number and origin city and state (where they are from).

The records are in German and mostly cover a time period before Germany unified in 1871.

Please pay special attention to the instructions for keying line number.

Name Page

Choose "Name Page" form type when the image contains "Ordnungs No", "Der Schiffsverträge", "Namen" and "Alter" fields to be keyed.

Line Number

Key a line number for each record, starting with 1 for the first line. Every line needs a line number, even blank lines!

If there are multiple people on a line, key each person with the same line number. Ex: If a mother and her 2 children are all on line number 2, key each persons line number as the number 2.

Serial Number

Key the serial number as seen on the record. There should be one serial number for each "household". Key the same serial number for each member of the "household". Serial number may be found in the column named "Ordnungs No".

Contract Day

Key the day from the contract date as seen on the record from the column named "Tag". Contract date may be found in the column named "Der Schiffsverträge". Contract date will be in [day-month-year] format.

Contract Month

Key the month in its three-letter abbreviation from the contract date using the dictionary provided to assist you. If the month appears as a number, key as seen. Contract date may be found in the column named "Der Schiffsverträge" under "Monat". Contract date will be in [day-month-year] format.

Contract Year

Key the year from the contract date as seen on the record from the column named "Jahr". Contract date may be found in the column named "Der Schiffsverträge". Two digit years should be expanded by adding the "18". Contract date will be in [day-month-year] format.

Surname

Key the surname as seen on the record using the dictionary provided for assistance. Surname may be found in the column named "Namen". Do not key the "Agenten Namen" into this field. Name will appear in [surname-given] format. If ditto marks appear in a surname, copy the surname above into this field. Some relationships may appear in the name fields. If a relationship appears in place of the surname, copy the surname above into this field. Do Not key relationships. Some common relationships include:

Given

Key the first name or initial and any middle names of the primary person as seen on the record using the dictionary provided for assistance. Given name may be found in the column named "Namen". Do not key the "Agenten Namen" into this field. Name will appear in [surname-given] format. If there are multiple people on a line, key each person with the same line number. Ex: If a mother and her 2 children are all on line number 2, key each persons line number as the number 2.

Age

Key the age as seen on the record. Age may be found in the column named "Alter".

Valid ages include numeric digits between "0" and "120" and fractions between "1/12" and "11/12". If an age includes years, months, and/or days key only the years. For example, if an age appears as 10 years, 7 months, key age as "10". If an age appears in months, such as 10 months, key age as a fraction: "10/12". If an Age includes years plus a fraction, such as 3 3/12, key only the year: "3". If the age is less than one month, key "0".

Keying Image Sample

Origin Page

Choose "Origin Page" form type when the image contains "Wohnort" and "Staat" fields to be keyed.

Line Number

Key a line number for each record, starting with 1 for the first line. Every line needs a line number, even blank lines!

Origin City

Key the origin city as seen on the record using the dictionary provided for assistance. The origin city may be found in the column named "Wohnort".

Origin State

Key the origin state as seen on the record using the dictionary provided for assistance. The origin state may be found in the column named "Staat".

Keying Image Sample

Cover page, Section header, etc

Use the “Cover page, Section header, etc” type for images that don’t contain any data, but might be interesting to look at because they provide some type of context for the image set. For instance, historical notes, affidavits, and so forth.

Additional Image Samples

Image with no data

Use the “Image with no data” type for images that do not contain any data or any useful context that might be interesting for someone to look at. For instance, an image containing only a blank background.

Target

Choose "Target" form type when the image is of a color and/or grayscale target. Target images are used to determine focus and color balance in the initial digitizing process.